The New York City Gang Of Four

[chas]

Thanks, K.! I'm thinking that rather than play it out to the last figure, we'll do what is often done in board war and minis games, and declare a Morale Break Level for the armies. If one side loses 10 full cards, their side loses. This will encourage players to rotate badly wounded or damaged cards out of the front lines, and replace them with fresh ones. That might also help us try out more of them, as often in Scape with large armies, many just don't get played.

Final Notes

Note 1: The map board is built. It is be mostly flat, with a couple of hills and oases (water and jungle vegetation), a couple of rock outcrops, a few pine tree lines, and a few one level elevation 2-3 hex pieces.

Note 2: Since you won't see my home made cards until you get here, I just want to mention that all have boxed icon pictures in the upper right (instead of figure photos). Some Squads have the same number of weapon icons on their cards as figures in the squad, as well as the numbe of figures stated as well.

Note 3[/U]: We'll be using my colored plastic 'stones' on the Orc squad cards with corresponding colors on their figures' individual bases to show which proxies are doubling for an Orc Common second squad (the Dwarven have enough figures for two squads each of their Commons).

Note 4: Typos: The Orc Squad noted in my Orc Army A list as 'Orc Rigger' and in Kolakoski's as Orc 'Digger' should in fact be Orc Ripper. The Diggers are in fact in Orc Army B only.

Note 5: Although the Lizard Scouts can stay Common, I see that I also had the Turtle Riders as Common, and am changing them to Unique.

***

After a game or two, we'll play my new Corto, which only takes an hour per game.

[chas]

Sherman left army selection up to me, so I'll take Dwarven Army B, and he gets Orc Army A!

I might have to recheck K.'s math, based on one or two last minute things we discussed.. I figure adding a second squad to each of the 6 Orc Common Squad types reduced the Dwarven Point lead from 400 to only 80 Points.

***

Notice how in the bygone Silmarillion Age the "Dwarfs" have more dignity and grandeur, and call themselves Dwarven in English!

My own favorite Tolkienism is one of the Elvish tongue's rendering of "Orc" as Yrrch! Say it with Elvish contempt: Yrrch!

[chas]

Well, it had been a while since we've gotten together as a group, so I had a great time playing two long games of "Silmarillion Scape," and then a short introductory game of Corto, in all three of which I got my butt kicked! Unfortunately, no one took any photos to immortalize the unusual (and now probably rare) old Orc and Dwarf minis, most of which are old Mage Knight or D&D figures.

For the first game, Taeblewalker and I played Dwarven. My across the table opponent, Sherman Davies had advanced two very fast Lizard Riders, so I warned him about the power of my nearby Mini-Gunner, and he proceded to take him right out. With terrible die luck, the game went badly for me, but I got to see many of my old customs in action, and the guys made many valuable suggestions, so I can go back and tweak some of the old cards. Thanks, guys!

In the second game, TW and I switched over to Orcs. When SD's mini-gunner practically took over the table, I called on my partner for help. In a nail biting attack, his Portal Chanters opened up their Portal right next to the enemy machine gunner, and put a wound on the two life character, but then Sherm killed TW's PC, and the Portal collapsed for good. I had to take out his MG by sacrificing 3 of my 4 Lizard Riders. My terrible die luck was augmented by being totally outplayed by Sherm. Not only was I on the losing side in both games, but I was responsible for myself losing about 7 of the 10 cards that structured our defeat! Yikes!

Then we took down the map board, grabbed dinner from the Gourmet Convenience Store downstairs, and played an hour long introductory game of Corto, a simple Eurogame by Metagot (they of Cyclades, Kemet, and lately Inis). Although Sherm wouldn't believe me at the end that he was ahead, the final score confirmed my prediction: Sherm 25 , K. 22, Me 6, and TW 2. Everyone agreed that it was a very unusual game conceptually, even though fairly easy to learn mechanically.

For various scheduling reasons, we haven't gotten together for a month or two, outside of our regular NYCG4 game, so it was good to get the family back together again. The usual hijinks took place. Let's hope it won't be so long before we get together again for Scape and other gaming!

[Taeblewalker]

I believe that I had 6 points in Corto and you had 2. Not that it matters much.

[chas]

Corrected!

Also, when cleaning up the game, I found an extra gold token at K.'s Corto player position with his stuff, so he might have gotten one more!

[chas]

I'll be making some modifications to a few of the Army Cards for the custom Orcs and Dwarves in my Customs thread, after playing them for the first time in years. Everyone has said that they'd be willing to play with them again, so they may show up in another extravaganza some time!

Thanks, guys.

(Edit: ) The following ten cards will be modified as per our discussions:

Orc Shaman
Orc Healer
Orc Mini Gunner

Dwarven Bombard
Dwarven Gun Captain
Dwarven Gunner
Dwarven Mortarman
Dwarven Wizard
Dwarven Warden (Healer)
Dwarven Mini Gunner

Other Board Games

We played Corto for the first time--I had solitaired it 3 times beforehand. It got too late for a second play. But everyone said they would play it again. K. thought there was not enough control for the player. This lack of control is actually a common comment on the game; some are comfortable with it, others not. the idea is to be strategic but go with the flow, and don't count on winning. For some reason, although not usually a fan of chaos, I really enjoy it!

The game is meant to be chaotic, to mimic the daring and exotic adventures of Corto Maltese, the globe trotting merchant naval officer comic hero of the WWI era by Hugo Pratt, an Italian artist who is very famous outside of the USA. You can see Corto's animated adventures for free on youtube. My favorite is Corto In Siberia, which is one of seven adventures included in an abstract way in the game. His nemesis and sometimes partner is Rasputin! Yeah, that one.

I have been expanding my own game collection into a few Eurogames lately; which is quite unusual for me. These are historical themes based in Asia, some of which are hard to find here in the USA:

Emperor's Choice: playing as a minister of the First Emperor in China (200 BC) Made in Japan.

Three Kingdoms Redux: Running one of three Kingdoms in the 3K period of China (200 AD) Made in Singapore; now released in the USA.

Far East War 1592 (The Japanese Invasion of Korea) Made in Taiwan.

Iki: running Edo market place artisans in Samurai Era Japan (circa 1600 AD)
Made in Japan.

[chas]

Although the lucky K. will be on vacation in Jamaica next month (no, not Jamaica, Queens), we have arranged a Heroscape game for Sat. Dec. 16, here at noon, with one or two substitute players. It will be probably be one free for all and one team game, with 600 point armies. The format will be Kill 'Em All or most points left after 10 turns, whichever comes first.

Update: We will play 500 point armies if more than 4 Players show up; so bring one of each. (See two posts down for additional scenario rules and map hints).

[chas]

Had two long afternoon/evening "nostalgic" days of gaming with one each of my NYCG4 pals, as we used to do more often in the old days when the group was forming, just one on one:

With Sherman Davies: We played a series of short games playtesting two of his Scape Supers; Flash and Deadpool (see his DC customs thread for his new take on the speedsters). Then we had an epic 5 hour play of my new Command & Colors Tricorne: American Revolution, which he won in his very first game as the British at The Battle of Long Island (Grant's Attack). That battle occurred in 1776 only a few miles down the road from here in lovely Brooklyn Heights!

With Tablewalker: We had two games of Battle Lore (also a C&C game), and split the honors. This is the original First Edition; the Second Fantasy Flight Edition is neither a C&C game nor by Richard Borg. While I've played it, as far as I'm concerned, it can't hold a candle to the First Edition. This game was published by Days of Wonder, and then sold to Fantasy Flight, who put out another half dozen expansions, but then moved the game to their own universe. So the first Edition is today hard to come by, but well rewards anyone who seeks it and its expansions out.

Then we had TWs first game of Tricorne. Since he now lives north of NYC, we played Freeman's Farm, part of the Battle of Saratoga, only a couple of hours upstate from where he lives now. We had a good time, and I managed a win.

For those who check out the Tricorne forum on bgg, you can see many of my posts, including two strategy articles. Also in the Files is some further information, including Charley's Combat Calculator (4.0).

Kolakosi is currently vacationing down in Jamaica. Which is nice for him, although he'll miss all of the December holiday gaming I'll be doing here in what he likes to call my Game Palace. This will include the annual visit by my Canadian pal, during which we'll be gaming our brains out for a week. Also my pal from New Jersey, the famous GWEK, for our annual game of Firefly, about which he is a major poster and designer of many, many fan variants for the game. In addition, I will be hosting some multiplayer games her as well.

Coming in December:

Star Trek Ascendancy: The Borg Assimilation expansion (GF9)
Cry Havoc: Aftermath expansion (Portal Games)
Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain (COIN series, GMT)

Coming in 2018:

Big Trouble In Little China (Everything Epic)
C&C Medieval (GMT)
Rising Sun (CMON)
Inis Expansion (Metagot)
C&C Tricorne The French Army Expansion (Compass Games)
The Great War (C&C) French Army Expansion (PSC)
Fire In The Lake (COIN Series, GMT Reprint)


***HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!***

[chas]

CHAS GLYPH SCAPE

Tomorrow, Sat. Dec. 16, we'll be playing on our usual giant 20x30 hex map with much varied terrain. Today I returned home to find that of the anticipated five players, due to both the weather and holiday family obligations, we will only have three, with a possible fourth joining us in the evening after one person has to leave. But we'll play as planned, without a team game.

I almost never use glyphs in scenarios I design, so this time, because we have no special scenario rules at all, here are my new modified rules for using both some purple original glyphs and some gold treasure glyphs in the same game, which we'll try out as alternatives to the normal glyph rules:

Original Glyphs
Three original purple glyphs will be placed face up in the middle of three central board sections: the bonus +1 Attack (Astrid), +1 Defense (Gerda), and +2 Movement (Valda) Glyphs. Because player army starting position will be chosen in the order of a random roll, players can use this prior knowledge of glyph placement to decide where they wish to start on the battlefield. All other regular glyph rules are in effect.

Treasure Glyphs
Do you have the favor of the Valkyrie Generals? Let's find out. Before game start, each player will randomly pick one of the 15 golden Treasure Glyphs from the bag. This can be given to a qualified Hero at game start to enhance that player's army! Cool. All other regular treasure glyph rules are in effect.

(Edit)
What army would you choose for this challenge? Here's Taeblewalker's intended army, which I'll set up for any fourth player who shows, or which we can have one person of us three play for a team army format:

Taeblewalker's Army (500 Points)

Syvarris
Venoc Warlord
Aubrien Archers x4

(Add For 600 Points)

Raelin
Kyntela Gwyn

***

[chas]

The three of us had a very long and interesting three way game. With only 3 players, we used the larger 600 point versions of our armies. I made up a "Good Guy" and a "Bad Guy" army, and got to use the Goodies:

The Chas "Good Guy" Samurai Army"
Kaemon Awa
Gueri-Oni
Tagawa Samurai
Tagawa Samurai Archers x2
Ninjas of the Northern Wind
Isamu

The Treasure Glyph I drew was Oceanmaster Amulet, which let Kaemon walk through water. This was such a useless glyph on a map with almost no water that after we laughed at my useless pick, I made it a running joke, boldly going over a single water hex unnecessarily just to say "I now use my amazing glyph to cross this pond! Ha Hah!" during the very first round of a hours long and hard fought battle. Later on I'd vary this totally unimportantly with: "I now cross over the frozen water (snow) with my magical water glyph!" and also "Here I employ my mystical water talisman to pick up the soggy Treasure Glyph from the shadow snow hex!" (So what?) But I had a plan.

Sherman Davies (SD) boldly engaged both of us at once. He and Guest Guy (GG), who was meeting me for the first time, engaged their armies far on the flank in and around the Desert Ruin in a major contest which eventually moved toward SD's start area. Being farther away, my force tramped on toward the central raised Arctic Plain with its snowfield, snow mountains, and thick ice. SD used the dreaded Cyprien Eisenwein to take out my Gueri-Oni and an entire squad of archers at my side of the snow field, before I finally put him down, and took his dropped treasure glyph for Kaemon, dominating the central snow plain by taking over the purple glyph that gave +1 Attack from two of SDs Phantom Knights.

As the other guys continued to wage major war, I split off Isamu, the only figure still in my own start area, to spend an entire round taking the high bridge road to the Pine Forest area and hold the purple +2 Speed glyph, with no opposition, which allowed me to move the rest of the army up to the front lines in the center much faster, and so turned out to be worthwhile. This was the only unexpected move not part of my original plan (other than losing Gueri-Oni before he could use his anti-range power).

While my army crested the height above the area where the other two armies were battling, they noticed that I created Super Kaemon! Now holding all three Treasure Glyphs in the game (also now including GG's +2 Defense Treasure glyph) and benefiting from two of the three purple board glyphs, I had made a monster who simultaneously combined the power of 5 of the 6 glyphs in the game! Egad! The other guys now called off their major conflict to go after me, combining a defense along the only major waterway on the board, the river between the snow plain and the desert section.

"I love it when a plan comes together!"
--Hannibal, The A Team

I don't usually boast about playing well, or even go out of my way to mention a victory, but this time it makes such a good story that you'll have to allow me to go on. All along I'd planned to use my "useless" glyph to get Kaemon across that river, and now I did! While my archers on high engaged SD's fearful Krav Magas below but protected by the jungle tree and bushes on their desert side of the river, my Tagawa engaged GGs Warriors of Ashra in the river itself. They were unable to hurt them, and were stopped cold for a bit, one Ashra even climbing the snowy heights to confound two of my samurai. By not attacking against my conterstrike, they pinned me good! Both my opponents were not only showing good judgement in going after me (but perhaps a couple of rounds too late), but were performing excellent teamwork with their remaining figures. Finally I managed to get one of the, Ashras and get an enhanced attack counter on their samurai squad card. Meanwhile, as my Ninja absorbed Krav shots by disappearing, Super Kaemon advanced and entered the river!

Although my two enemies were playing well and forcing me to only attack one of their figures at a time, Super Kaemon, even with an old wound from fighting the vampire way back at the game start, was almost invincible, and took out several enemies. Finally GG's last figure went down. SD could see the game was lost, but vowed to kill Super Kaemon before he went down, which he finally managed. Then I went on to victory and took him out, with most of my own army still intact.

In Heroscape, with its swingy die rolling and unexpected moves, plans almost never work out. But here I actually had a chance to make and carry out a Scape battle plan from the beginning to end of a very long game, which warmed my old war gamers heart! In a masterful play, I had practically ensured my victory ahead of time, such that by the round the two combined against me, I had the game won. This was due to the three player format, some slick moves, and a full exploitation of the my new modified Glyph rules, plus the improvised Isamu Round, when even the often useless Red Ninja contributed to the win). My squad ninjas had been good glyph grabblers as anticipated, and the archers provided some decent shots with the height bonus. Although Gueri-Oni and the first Tagawa Samurai Archer squad did not get to contribute, the rest of the team had done exactly what I'd envisioned for them when I built the army. That just never happens in Scape; but it did this time.

Most importantly, we all had fun:

Guest Guy, a former Scaper who had had to give up Scaping due to a lack of opponents, got to meet us through the old Long Island Scape group, now almost disbanded, and come to my Brooklyn Game Palace for the very first time, to play with us. He got to try out the Elf Pod for the first time, and at least see his second army he designed in its tray, by borrowing my figures for today. Now he'll continue to rebuild the collection he'd mostly sold off! Welcome back to the fold, GG! Hopefully this will have been the first of many visits to Brooklyn and gaming with us.

Sherman Davies had to opportunitey to play well, battle fiercly, and have fun, and finally kill Super Kaemon. This was no easy feat, with SuperK being buffed by five of the six glyphs in the game. So that was especially satisfying for him.

And me? I got to play with two great guys, even though two others had had to cancel out from our original plan for 5 Player games. And I managed a Sun Tzu Moment. For me, there is no greater pleasure in gaming in general than going into a battle knowing I almost have to win,due to prior clever strategic planning and maneuvering. This is almost impossible to manage in Heroscape, but today I did it, despite the usual wacky unplanned developments by the combination of disparate figures, and the wild pendulum swing of die luck. Hooray!


***

Good times! Now I look forward to Kolakoski's return from Jamaican vacation next month for our next monthly outing with the New York City Gang of Four. In the meantime I've got lots of holiday board gaming planned for the rest of December, as new seasonal games begin to trickle in.

Sherman has now created my very first site signature, which will now direct all readers to this thread, despite my low tech old school limitations on the computer. Check it out.

And, in an immediate gaming Yin Yang snap back, he creamed me in a two player game of Tricorne after Guest Guy went home, putting a Coda on my great Scape victory with a terrible defeat! That's Show Biz.

Meanwhile, holiday gaming deliveries have begun to come in. my Cry Havoc Aftermath Expansion came into my Manhattan FLGS, and that new package looks just great inside. Good things can come in small packages. There I met another pal to go out for a great Japanese lunch near by, and exchange holiday game gifts. I got the escalation packs for all five factions in Star Trek Ascendancy, which should come in handy in our first ever 5 Player game next week. I also received the official game mat for that star trek game. And the Board Game Geek Store's new silicon set of Bit Bowls arrived too, which I'll be able to use for every big game I play from now on, to keep many small game components separated and easily available on the table. The Borg Assimilation expansion should be here too any day for said ST Ascendancy.

"And I heard him declare
As he sped out of sight
Good Gaming To All
And To All A Good Fight!"

Ho Ho Ho!

[chas]

HAPPY 2018!

And here in the New Year, our next Taeblewalkerscape game is Wed. Jan. 17. Something about Heat of Battle.

Getting some of us together for the brand new Cry Havoc Aftermath Expansion Wed. Jan. 10.

Last holiday week played:

*Star Trek Ascendancy (First 5 Player Game)

*Firefly (4 Player)

*Axis and Allies D-Day x2 (3 Player, 2 Player)

*Commands & Colors Tricorne: American Revolution x12

[chas]

In the New Year the Joint is Jumping!

Next Wednesday Jan. 10 here in Brooklyn is

Science Fiction Game Day

When we play two brand new game expansions:

Cry Havoc Aftermath and Star Trek Ascendancy Borg Assimilation

***

Wed. Jan. 17 is Taeblewalker Scape:

500 Points Heat Of Battle on his Forbidden Land Map

And many of us are looking at the new C3V Monks (see the Home Page)

***

Finally, tomorrow (Monday) TW and I will be play testing

even newer TOP SECRET C3V designs